Erosion of the earth causes numerous problems. Soils eroded from banks can cause loss of land, landslips can impact infrastructure and rock fall and slope instability can be hazardous to roads, buildings and people. Soils from the erosion process inevitably end up polluting watercourses leading to loss of ecology and habitat.
With our specialist knowledge and comprehensive product range Maccaferri can offer a graded logical range of erosion protection techniques from soil bio-engineering and low energy solutions through to robust high-energy capacity revetments that can also be revegetated.
Erosion issues can be allocated by:
These applications are generally on dry slopes, but may suffer near-surface instability from rain or water run off. These slopes can range from shallow soil covered slopes requiring lightweight biodegradable mats to vertical rock faces, requiring high strength rock fall protection and mitigation measures.
These surfaces will be exposed to water flow and consequently erosion can be rapid. Erosion control solutions can range from surface protection to full retaining structures and river training works.
Conditions here are aggressive and may include tidal and wave action, as well as saline environments. Structural stability and erosion control are important.
Wherever your erosion problem exists, the level of intervention should be appropriate to the erosion risk you face;
Low Risk: As one solution or product cannot solve all problems, we alter the intervention level and solution, depending upon the requirement of the project; Often, vegetation alone can offer reasonable erosion control, yet establishment of vegetation can be hindered by the prevailing conditions. In these cases biodegradable mats temporarily stabilize the soil enabling vegetation to take root.
Medium Risk: In order to protect their Professional Indemnity, designers may not wish to rely upon vegetation alone, if it cannot be guaranteed for long term protection; it may die back through disease, drought or storm events. Therefore, more permanent erosion protection solutions are required. Laboratory tested, these provide reassurance of long term performance with or without vegetation.
High Risk: For higher risk applications, even more robust solutions are required. Despite offering long term reassurance, these systems can often still be revegetated, recreating the natural environment.
